Utility Stores to continue supplying cheap sugar

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has announced that the Utility Stores Corporation will continue to ensure that sugar is provided to the lower income group and that too at cheaper rates.

This was discussed in a meeting of the ministerial committee, constituted by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), which met under the chairmanship of Federal Minister for Industries and Production, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, here on Friday.

The committee also decided that stocks available with the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP), in addition to those reserved for USC, would be off-loaded in the market in adequate quantities and at an appropriate time.

The committee was informed that sugar stocks are satisfactory and there is no truth in rumours of insufficient stocks being spread by certain unscrupulous elements to raise prices and make money.

The TCP briefed the committee about its stocks and shipments of sugar arriving in the country and their schedule.

Domestic sugar stocks stood at 1.245 million tons, and with the imported sugar arriving steadily, are sufficient to meet demand till the next crushing season begins in October. The committee was told that imported sugar is going to stabilise prices and ensure availability even in the next sugar season.

The committee will also be suggesting further measures to the ECC to ensure that unscrupulous elements do not try to create any situation to make profits before, during or after Ramazan by creating misconceptions.

This will include administrative measures by provincial governments and by ensuring that sugar supply remains in abundance, ie well above the monthly demand in the open market.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2010.